My boss told me to cut our content team from 5 people to 2 to save money

He said we could just use more AI tools and the quality wouldn't drop. That was about 8 months ago. Well, our lead flow from content dropped by over 60% in the first quarter. The stuff the AI puts out is fine for basic info, but it doesn't connect with our big clients at all. We lost a major deal with a firm in Chicago because our case studies felt generic. Now we're scrambling to hire back. Has anyone else tried to replace writers with AI and had it blow up?

3 comments

3 Comments

nina_jenkins1mo ago

Yeah, that tracks. Used to be all for cutting costs with AI for basic stuff. Then we tried it for our client newsletters and the unsubscribe rate went through the roof. The text was correct but it had no voice, nothing that made our brand feel like a real company. People can tell. It just reads flat. Getting that human touch back is way harder and more expensive than keeping it in the first place. Your boss learned the hard way, same as mine did.

west.henry22d ago

Laughing because my dog barked at the AI voice on our voicemail today.

riley_west1mo ago

Ugh, tell me about it. We did the exact same thing with our help desk replies. The answers were technically right, but customers got so mad because it felt like talking to a brick wall. Now we're paying a team to go back and fix the tone on hundreds of old responses. The cheap fix ended up costing way more than just doing it right.